


Max Headroom: For The Sake of the People

by ElegantButler



Category: Max Headroom (TV)
Genre: Assault, Attempted Rape, Gen, Murder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-23 03:26:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13181382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElegantButler/pseuds/ElegantButler
Summary: When he is attacked by Simon Peller,  Bryce must figure a way to defend himself from future attacks without risking Network 23's reputation.





	1. Attack

MAX HEADROOM: 20 Minutes Into the Future  
For the Sake of the People  
CHAPTER 01: Attack

“Thanks, Bryce,” Theora said as she disconnected from the view-phone screen. Moments later, there was a knock on the studio door. Bryce stood up irritably and took a deep breath to calm himself before looking to see who it was. 

Simon Peller, Network 23’s pet politician, was standing in the corridor. The man looked harried as if he felt that Bryce was deliberately wasting his valuable time. 

With a sigh, Bryce unlocked and opened the door.

“What are you working on?” Peller asked, in a tone that sounded a bit too friendly to Bryce.

“I just finished helping Edison with his latest project,” Bryce complained, sitting back down at his computer. “So I haven’t had time to work on anything of my own devising today.”

“That’s a shame,” Peller apologized, “as it would’ve been the last project you ever did.”

Peller spun Bryce around in his chair and yanked him out of the seat so roughly, he nearly dislocated the young genius’s arm. He punched Bryce in the stomach, causing Bryce to fall to the ground. Then, standing over him, Peller began to undress. Bryce watched Peller, at first too stunned to move. Peller knelt over Bryce, fumbling with his belt. He had expected Bryce to be an easy target, too naive to catch on until it was too late.

It was true that Bryce didn’t have a clue what Peller was about to do to him. But he also didn’t like people punching him and knocking him down. This was clearly a violent attack, and some instinct told Bryce it would get more violent if he didn’t stop it. 

Not every graduate at ACS was fortunate enough to end up working for a Network. And some of those who did had to walk through the Fringes to get to work as not all Networks were equipped with on-site apartments for their heads of Research & Development. So there had been a mandatory class on self-defence and how to handle emergency situations.

Bryce remembered one such class on dealing with physical attacks. And as Peller fumbled with his clothes, Bryce brought his knee up into Peller’s crotch.

Network 23’s pet politician rolled over in pain. Then, standing up, deprived of his prey for the moment, he got to his feet and fixed his clothes before stumbling for the door, hoping to make an escape before Bryce could call the authorities.


	2. Countermeasure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bryce takes his revenge on Peller

CHAPTER 02: Countermeasure

As Peller ran to the lift, Bryce got to his feet and staggered to his computer. He was sure that Peller would make another attempt on him if he didn’t do something to stop the man. His mind was racing as his fingers flew over the keyboard. For the briefest of moments, he thought of calling the metrocops. But then it dawned on him that Peller’s arrest would destroy Network 23’s reputation. They were backing the man, after all. He had to protect himself in another way. A way that would stop Peller from ever hurting him, or anyone else, ever again.

Pulling up the corridor in a window on the computer, Bryce tapped into the controls for the lift that Peller was racing for. With a single key-press, he opened the doors. There was no car in the shaft, but Peller was too keen on making his escape to notice. By the time he did notice, it was far too late. The politician plummeted downward, too shocked to scream. The only noise he made was the sickeningly squishy thud of his body striking the concrete of the second sub-basement fifteen floors below.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter is short. Sorry.


	3. Panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edison finds Bryce in a state of panic

CHAPTER 03: Panic

Edison Carter glared at the Out Of Service light that was lit up next to the doors to the lift. This was the only lift that went down as far as the car park on the second and first sub-basement floors. He could go to the repairmen, but they would take too long. It might, he decided, be easier to have Bryce fix it. As long as the repair was technical in nature and related to the elevator’s control computer, the young genius should have no problem fixing it.

Taking the stairs to the next level, he caught an alternate lift from the main basement. He by-passed Control and headed directly for Bryce’s studio on Level 13.

Reaching the studio, he found the door ajar and heard what sounded like Bryce’s voice. It seemed to be speaking rapidly, as if Bryce were in distress.

Hurrying to the source of the sound, he found Bryce staring blankly at his computer, sobbing and muttering over and over: “I had to…. I had to…”

“You had to what?” Edison asked urgently. “Bryce what did you have to do?”

Bryce didn’t respond to his friend at first. 

Edison heard a lift open and wondered briefly if the broken one had been fixed. The sound seemed to drive Bryce into a deeper state of panic. The teenager suddenly leapt from his chair, frantically trying to find an escape route.

“Bryce, calm down,” Edison said, worriedly. He had never seen the ever-so-collected Bryce in such a state before. Not even when Ashwell had broken in and kidnapped Max Headroom during the situation with the VIew Age Church. He grabbed Bryce and pulled him into his arms, struggling to hold him.

“Calm down,” he repeated. “Tell me what happened.”

“I had to…” Bryce said again, no calmer than before.

Edison released Bryce and was about to try again to get Bryce to open up, when Network 23 Security rushed in followed by two metrocops.


	4. Arrest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bryce is arrested

CHAPTER 04: Arrest

“Bryce Lynch,” the lead metrocop said, approaching with a pair of handcuffs.

“What do you want?” Edison demanded. He didn’t like the way this was going. He had to find out what was happening.

“Step aside, Mr. Carter,” the metrocop commanded. “You have your job and I have mine. And right now, I’m placing Mr. Lynch under arrest for the murder of Simon Peller.”

Edison looked at the resignation in Bryce’s eyes and remembered the broken lift. He also remembered the night he, himself, had broken into Bryce’s studio to find the Rebus Tape.

“Bryce,” he whispered as the young genius was handcuffed. “What did you do?”

As Bryce was handcuffed, he simply repeated, once again, his voice barely more than a whisper now: 

“I had to…” 

Edison stood in the ominously empty studio for a few minutes to come to grips with what had just happened. Then, he got himself in gear and raced to the Control Room.

“Theora,” he said as he arrived at her station. “We’ve got a serious problem. Bryce has been arrested.”

“For what?” Theora asked. “He wasn’t caught hacking the central system, was he?”

“He killed Peller,” Edison told her.

“What?! Why?” Theora could not believe what she was hearing. Bryce was far from the killer type. She might classify him as morally ambiguous, but she felt what morals he did have were at least enough to prevent him from committing outright murder.

“I don’t know,” Edison said, angrily. “He just kept telling me he had to do it. No.. he wasn’t telling me. He was just saying it. Like he was in shock or something. He was really freaking out when they came and took him away.”

“Does Cheviot know,” Theora asked.

“He must by now,” Edison figured. “I’m sure the news of Peller’s death would have reached him as soon as they found the body.”

“I mean does he know that Bryce was the one who killed him?” Theora frowned, unable to truly accept the words that were coming out of her mouth. “Edison, why would Bryce have to kill Peller? He’d have nothing to gain and everything to lose.”

“I don’t know,” Edison admitted. “But we’re going to find out.”


End file.
